[ The House of Mistresses - Unseen Corridor ]

Shhing—!

I quickly lean back from the lunging [Headless Body] and barely manage to dodge the tip of its kitchen knife. With a sharp sound, the knife cuts through the air millimeters away from my chin, grazing me with its cold, sharp edge that’s already glistening with blood.

“...!”

Due to the suddenness of my movement, my lower body loses its balance, and I start to fall backward.

Fortunately, I manage to grab onto one of the hanging marionettes’ limbs, allowing me to stabilize my center of gravity and swing back onto my feet.

But that also means that my back’s now turned to my attacker.

Shhwing!

At the same time, my ears pick up the sound of the Headless Body swinging its knife through the air again.

Without even having to turn around to see it, my instinct takes over—every strand of muscle in my body forces me to move down as fast as possible, so I automatically slip on my heels and drop my entire body all the way to the floor.

Crash—!

A loud sound. Something’s been cut.

I look at the sliced-in-half torso of the marionette that falls in front of my feet, and freeze.

—If I didn't dodge it in time, my head would have been chopped right off…

“Tsuuu…”

I take a short moment to calm down, patting myself on the chest, before springing back up to a stand by pushing against the floor with my hands, and spinning around to face... [It].

—Yes.

Now with the time to carefully look, I know for certain that my eyes didn’t deceive me. The figure standing in front of me is none other than the mysterious [Headless Body] that appeared in the theater room about 30 minutes prior.

But now, it’s moving like a living person, walking through the hanging puppets slowly in my direction, readying its bloodied kitchen knife for another strike—combined with the base of the neck that’s been cut cleanly, letting the dim red lights shine down its es*******, it’s an appearance that sends a chill down my spine.

On the side of the room, Second Sister Rinne and Ninth Sister Miho are slowly backing away into the opposite corner where the puppets are.

Wait—

“What are the two of you standing around over there for?! Help me!”

““But it’s scary!””

The corner of my mouth twitches at their ridiculous excuses.

“Stop pretending to be scared already! Aren’t we still inside Lady Lucianna’s domain?! This thing probably can’t even hurt— ”

The [Headless Body] is swinging at me again!

It’s fast, faster than I can properly get out of the way of. In a last-ditch effort by my body to save itself, my left arm automatically moves up in front of my chest to block the slash.

Zhhh~!

It would've been fine. No, it should have been fine. But, somehow, in the split second that the [Headless Body]’s knife cuts through the thin layer of black robe and tears through the skin of my forearm, an unexpected sensation reaches me...

Something I’ve never felt before while being inside the Undercity.

—Pain.

“...!”

Pulling my left arm back in a hurry, I hop backward to create some distance, before staring at the [Headless Figure] in front of me in complete, stiffened fear.

How…?

There’s no way…

This shouldn’t be possible…

Because right now…

—I’m supposed to be inside Lady Lucianna’s domain.

I look at the blood seeping from the wound on my forearm.

It’s not healing…

And since it’s almost impossible to kill an angel tied to the creator of a domain inside their domain, the only explanation in my head that makes any sense right, is that somehow, the owner of this [body] possesses the authority to overwrite the divine blessing given to us.

And the only person who fits that criteria…

“Lady… Lucianna?”

I mutter with an incredulous frown.

—No, it can’t be!

““Miwari!””

Seeing that I’ve taken a hit and still in a state of shock, Second Sister Rinne and Ninth Sister Miho run up to grab my shoulders and pull me aside, barely letting me avoid another slash from the [Headless Figure].

The tip of the knife passes right in front of my bewildered face and lands directly on a shelf full of puppets, cutting a row of them in half!

“Hong!”

I turn my head to the source of the barking noise—standing by the entrance to this room are none other than Little Eden and Bery the Cerberus.

“This way.”

Taking advantage of the small window of opportunity created by the fact that the [Headless Figure]’s still recovering from its attack, my sisters and I throw a bunch of puppets at the figure and make a run for it.

Clack—!

After leaving Kanna’s room, the four of us run into the theater room, two doors to the right on the opposite side, and slam the door shut after we enter!

Bang—!

“Haaa~ Haaa~ C-can anyone tell me... what’s actually happening right now?” panting and leaning against the theater room’s door, I try to ask the others for clarification, or something that would wake me up just in case this is some sort of dream.

“The Headless Body is…” Second Sister Rinne starts to say.

“Attacking us?” Ninth Sister Miho tilts her head curiously.

“I get that part, yes! Why though?”

““How are we supposed to know?”” They both look at me with ‘innocent’ eyes.

—Aaah, of all the sisters of this House, why do I have to be stuck with these two?!

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“Miw… why is your wound... not healing?”

From the right, the soft voice of Little Eden reaches my ears. Without even looking, I can still feel the blood from the wound on my forearm soaking into the now torn black robe.

“I-I don’t know!”

Instead of telling them any wild theories that my panic-clouded mind comes up with, I simply shake my head wildly in response to the question.

—After all, there's no way...

Just then—

Poof~!

A familiar noise can be heard from one of the lanterns on the wall, and the entire room begins to periodically fall to darkness at faster and faster intervals.

—Wait, why are the lights flickering…

Oh, no-no-no-no-no-no…

“But… it hasn’t even been 10 minutes yet!”

My heart thumps in my chest as the realization kicks in.

Against my wish and to my horror, the scene in front of me continues to morph into one from my worst imagination.

The lights flicker once.

Then twice.

Then for the third time.

After the darkest lifts…

—The [Headless Figure]’s now standing not so far in front of us, right on the pathway between the layers of the seats, holding up its knife!

“““AAAAaaaaaaAaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH~!”””

I, Second Sister Rinne, and Ninth Sister Miho, all scream our hearts out at the sight of the [Headless Body] suddenly appearing from the darkness!

“H-how is it already here?!”

“Ah… Eden gets it…. It’s because… the timer for the flames… doesn’t matter to something… that can’t see...”

“Little Eden! Now’s not the time to be having an epiphany!”

The moment I see the [Headless Figure] starts moving, I grab Eden’s wrist and run out of the theater room and into the corridor as fast as I possibly can!

Turning back to look briefly, I catch a glimpse of the [Headless Figure]’s knife slashing across the blankets and game boards that were thrown at it by Ninth Sister Miho and Second Sister Rinne, slicing them all completely in half without any resistance.

—Yep, we definitely need to go call for help!

In the dimly lit corridor, I run straight to the third door to my left opposite the theater room, pulling Eden along with me.

Reaching the door, I start knocking with all of my strength, ignoring the wound on my arm.

Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!

“Frul! First Sister Roxxi!”

But no matter how hard I bang on the door.

Or how loudly I yell.

There’s no reply.

Running out of patience, I grab one side of the door and slide it open…

Clack!

Only to be met with an entirely empty guest room.

“Oh yeaaah…”

Before I can slap myself for forgetting how these doors work, the panicked voice of Second Sister Rinne calls out to me.

“Miwari, look behind you!”

When I turn around, I see Ninth Sister Miho and Second Sister Rinne desperately running out of the theater room, and right behind them, stepping into the corridor, is none other than the [Headless Figure].

It turns in our direction, slowly, then spins around with its back toward us.

After that, it directly falls to the floor like a crumpled piece of paper.

Then, with a strange twisting of its limbs…

—It begins crawling after us on all four like a ‘human spider’!

“““AAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!””” my sisters and I scream at the top of our lungs!

Without caring for anything, I grab Eden’s wrist and start running in the opposite direction!

—It was just scary before, now it’s downright creeping me out!

““What do we do, Miwari?!”” running down the corridor, Ninth Sister Miho and Second Sister Rinne look at me and ask with pale faces.

“H-how would I know?! Wait a minute, why me!? You two t-think of something!” I answer them through the fear-induced stuttering.

I quickly glance behind me, see that the [Headless Body]’s chasing after us by actually running on the wall like a spider, and immediately decide to force my legs to move faster!

“Miw… in there.”

“Hong!”

Too afraid to turn around, I glance at Eden out of the corner of my eyes and see that she's pointing at one of the doors to my left.

That’s right! As long as we hide in one of the rooms and close the door, there’s no way it will be able to follow us in from the outside!

The four of us come to a stop, open one of the doors on the left side of the corridor, and enter the room without hesitation.

But when I turn around to try to close the door—

—Klang!

A knife flies in, bounced off of the opposite wall, and lands directly in between the two sides of the doors, burying itself into the wooden floor, preventing the door from being closed!

“That is… ridiculous.”

—How did you even calculate the geometries for that? You don’t even have eyes!

—Somebody’s clearly cheating! Where are the Arbiters!? I want to complain!

“Miwari! Get out of the way!”

While I’m still in shock, Ninth Sister Miho grabs my arm and pulls me away from the door. In the next moment, the [Headless Figure] barges into the room, grabs the knife that was stuck between the doors, and slashes at me from below in a single motion.

Shwaa—!

…..

In a brief moment of hyperawareness, time slows down…

Tiny chips of wood dug out of the floor by the kitchen knife flew into the air, almost entering my eyes…

A gust of cold wind rushes past my cheek, followed by an indescribable force with a distinct feeling of sharpness…

“Everyone! This way!”

The voice of Second Rinne snaps me back to reality. I turn to the other side of the room and see that she’s already standing behind the [Headless Figure].

After dodging another strike, Ninth Sister Miho, Eden, and I, manage to take advantage of the [Headless Figure]’s window of recovery to slip past it and run out into the corridor along with Second Sister Rinne.

Without any hesitation, we rush into the opposite room in an attempt to lock ourselves inside. However, the [Headless Body] somehow manages to reach the door before we can close it again!

Thus begins our little game of tag inside the House of Mistresses, where the four of us try to outrun the [Headless Body] into any room we can.

But every time we try, the [Headless Body]’s always able to use its ridiculous speed to catch up.

—In a random game room, Second Sister Rinne, Ninth Sister Miho, and I, all run around, grabbing everything we can off the shelves and tables to throw at the [Headless Body] in order to slow it down and giving ourselves an opportunity to go into another room.

—In one of the onsens, we try to get it to fall in the water by throwing some buckets, only for the [Headless Body] to slice those things aside without any trouble, splitting even the onsen’s water in half with a single swing of its simple-looking kitchen knife.

—In the library, things finally work out in our favor. After knocking down every bookshelf and turning the entire library into a mess, we are able to slow it down enough for all four of us to gain some distance!

“Miw… try closing the door… and reopening it.”

Without any hesitation, I turn around, close the door, and then reopen it, just as Little Eden says.

The library we’ve come out of disappears, replaced by a normal guest room with the [Headless Body] nowhere in sight.

I breathe out a sigh of relief.

“Wait—… but doesn’t this just send the room behind some other door?”

Clack—!

The four of us turn to the right.

From within the door right next to ours, the [Headless Body] slowly steps out.

Under the dim red lights of the corridor, it turns to us.

—And raises the knife.

“““AaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAhhh—!!!”””

Along with my screaming sisters and Little Eden, I immediately run inside, slam the door shut, and turn around with my back against it.

“Haaaa~ Haaa~ W-we should… be safe now… right!?”

If what we assumed to be true about how these doors work is in fact—well, true—then it shouldn’t be possible for the [Headless Figure] to follow us in here!

Just then…

Bang—!

“””...“””

At the sound, we all turn to look at the door.

The pounding from the other side is ever so slightly causing the wooden door frame to bend, creating a small gap between either side of the door.

With every slamming of the door…

Bang—!

The gap between them grows wider

Bang—!

With every slamming of the door…

Bang—!

The realization that there’s no guarantee of safety even here, pounds our heads.

I swallow, despite my throat feeling drier than a desert at the moment.

Bang—!

And the smashing sound continues.

Bang—!

Leaning against the wall on the other side of the room, staring at the entrance with increasing palpitation, I subconsciously reach to wipe the sweat off my forehead.

“Little Eden… didn’t you say you are very lucky at the moment?” realizing that I’ve been holding someone’s wrist too hard for a while now, I relax my grip and ask. “How come we find ourselves in this situation then, you think?”

“Luck is a… very mysterious thing,” Eden says.

Is that… supposed to be a joke?

For the first time since I’ve met her, from the voice of the golden-haired little girl holding Bery the Cerberus standing beside me, I can hear that there’s a very, very small trace of emotion.

Although it wasn’t exactly fear, I can’t say it was excitement either.

But before I can think too deeply about that…

“Ah! The two of you, watch out!”

—————..........